Guilty Husband Wore Wife's Clothing After Murdering Her in 'Honour Killing'

Guilty Husband Wore Wife's Clothing After Murdering Her in 'Honour Killing'

A man walked away from a crime scene wearing his wife’s clothing after murdering her in a so-called ‘honour killing’. Ahmed Al-Khatib was caught on CCTV wearing Rania Alayed’s clothes to give the impression that she was still alive.

The Express reports that Syrian-born Al-Khatib lured his wife to his brother’s house in Salford, Greater Manchester and killed her because she had left him to become more “Westernised”. He claimed in court that he had killed her in self-defence during a row because he believed an evil spirit had entered her body.

However, he was yesterday found guilty at Manchester Crown Court of murdering his wife and of perverting the course of justice, and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

After the murder, he stuffed his wife’s remains into a suitcase before he and his brother drove the body 87 miles and buried it at the side of a lay-by on the A19 road in North Yorkshire. His wife’s body has never been found.

Al-Khatib initially claimed his wife had moved to Turkey, but police became suspicious after it emerged that Ms Alayed had asked a lawyer to help “free her from the shackles of marriage”, angering her husband.

She then further enraged her husband by attending a college, meeting new friends and then beginning a relationship with another man.

Although Al-Khatib eventually confessed that his wife was dead, he denied murder, saying she had fallen and hit her head during an argument.

Detective Chief Inspector Phil Reade of Greater Manchester Police said that the murder was a pre-planned “honour killing”.

“Rania was beginning to put an abusive and violent relationship behind her and had genuine cause to be optimistic for the future,” he said.

“But at the point when she thought she might be able to create a better life for her and her children – free of the domestic abuse she suffered at the hands of Al-Khatib – her husband snatched it all away in the cruellest and most despicable way possible.

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